Saying goodbye to a daughter and a sister

BY DAVENE JEFFREY AND DAVID JACKSON STAFF REPORTERSPublished June 30, 2013 - 7:41pm Last Updated June 30, 2013 - 7:50pm

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Family of Reita Jordan to celebrate her life

The family of Reita Louise Jordan, 34, of Tantallon ‘just need to be able to say goodbye,’ her sister Emily said Sunday. (CONTRIBUTED)

The family of a Tantallon woman who was allegedly murdered will hold a celebration of her life next Saturday in Lawrencetown, Halifax County.

Reita Louise Jordan’s remains haven’t been found, but her family believes she is deceased, said Emily Jordan, the youngest of Reita’s three sisters.

“We know that she’s dead,” Jordan said Sunday. “We need closure, and we just need to be able to say goodbye.”

Reflecting Sunday evening, she said she misses her oldest sister, who put her family above everything else.

Many of Reita’s happiest times were spent with her sisters and nephews and nieces at the family’s Sherbrooke camp, Jordan said.

“She would make up rap songs out of nursery rhymes. … My kids do that to this day.

“She was fun.”

Reita had been a teenage mother. Her son, Sabastian, is 17.

“That was a very good memory — when Sabastian was born,” Jordan said.

Her sister had a knack for drawing, loved music and had been a very good student, skipping straight from Grade 8 to Grade 10. And even after having her son, Reita went back to school to get her GED and to later attend Nova Scotia Community College, Jordan said.

“Reita was a good person. She would make you laugh. You couldn’t be upset around her.

“She’s been our caretaker and our sister.”

Jordan acknowledged her sister had made some wrong choices in life, but she said Reita was a loving person who was at ease talking to anyone and only wanted others to be happy.

The event is set for the Lawrencetown Community Centre at 3 p.m. on July 6.

Reita, 34, went missing from her home in late March. She was reported missing two weeks later after no one heard from her.

On June 18, Halifax RCMP charged her boyfriend, Paul Trevor Calnen, who lives on Rising Sun Trail in Hammonds Plains, with second-degree murder.

Calnen was also charged with indecently interfering with human remains “by burning.” Police allege that that allegedly occurred between March 18 and June 16, according to the court information charging him.